ABSTRACT
This chapter charts the final six months in the careers of Christopher Mayhew and David Luce and in the strange half-life of a ship that was never ordered, never built and never sailed but in which the naval leadership of the United Kingdom invested their professional hopes, aspirations and strategic assumptions to such an extent that almost everything else the naval leadership dealt with was subordinate. It reviews the aftermath of the Defence Council meeting, including arguments over costing used in the meeting, the new working party study into carriers commissioned by Denis Healey, and the papers on the presentation and problems of cancelling the aircraft carrier. Hopkins was referring to a three-carrier force, not providing for two carriers east of Suez at all time, the accepted minimum for effective operations; and the fact that CVA-01 would be completed in 1973 when carrier airpower would only be needed up to 1980.
